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100 best records of the year

From Radiohead to Kanye, Liszt to Wagner, our critics pick their top albums of 2016

The Sunday Times

December 4 2016, 12:01am, The Sunday Times

No surprises: Radiohead take the award for pop album of the yearTIM MOSENFELDER/GETTY IMAGES

POP ALBUM OF THE YEAR

1 Radiohead A Moon Shaped Pool(XL) Reworked, updated ideas and songs from years ago jostling with newly minted tracks, lyrics mired in the break-up of Thom Yorke’s relationship, a sonic architecture that fashioned these components into music of breathtaking beauty, menace and poignancy, futuristic and as old as the hills: on their ninth studio album, Radiohead created a work of art that, seven months after its release, continues to surprise.

2 Beyoncé Lemonade (RCA) In which the enraged Mrs Carter used rumours of Jay Z’s infidelity to create a stunning multi-genre journey through betrayal, fury, estrangement and forgiveness. After this, her sixth studio album, the lemon emoji was never the same again.